In “A Place to Play,” the cover subject of our May/June edition, we address why community-based lacrosse matters more than ever and canvassed the leaders of 14 youth leagues from across the country that possess the ingredients for continued growth. We asked them about the challenges and opportunities they encounter on the front lines of this critical segment of the lacrosse-playing population.
Why is community-based lacrosse essential to the growth of the sport?
“Several reasons, including the fact that communities foster inclusion and a sense of belonging among residents. Community-sponsored programs have a better ability to reach out to individual residents, as opposed to a more remote and centralized organization. And let’s not forget that kids really want to play with their friends. This has a snowball effect, which is why it is so important to get sticks in their hands early and often.”
— Todd Molyneux, Greater Houston Youth Lacrosse Association
“Community-based lacrosse is where most lacrosse players start in the Milwaukee area. Our devotion to helping kids fall in love with this game is what carries them as they progress to travel teams, high school and hopefully beyond.”
— Emily Anderson, Milwaukee Area Youth Lacrosse Association
“The natural progression — and it doesn’t matter if it’s hockey, basketball, lacrosse or Boy Scouts — is an individual is introduced to an activity. Growth is a result, and the biggest recruiters are the players. That’s what happened with my older son. We were in Singapore and moved back to the U.S. The school he went to, his buddies were playing lacrosse, and he got interested. You get exposed and interested at the school or community level. Then once you’re introduced to it, we develop the kids to our capabilities. Then we’re blessed, because we’ve got all these other club people who can develop players even further. A player probably isn’t going into Denver Elite as just an athlete. He will come in at the community base and then expand outward. There are two types of development, in my mind. First is the development of raw players. If we have 2,000 raw players at one point in time and then two years later, you have 2,500, that’s the growth. Second is the growth in capability, talent or skills. That growth is fueled by more East Coast people coming to Colorado, in particular because of the great club structure we have in place.”
— Mike Stears, Colorado Youth Lacrosse Association
“It’s all about fun. These kids should have fun. They should be enjoying their practice and time with their buddies. If lacrosse becomes their outlet and their vision of having fun with their buddies playing sports, then that’s great. They shouldn’t have to travel 30 minutes to an hour to go to practice. They should have something that’s easily accessible and affordable.”
— Mike Black, River City (Ill.) Lacrosse
“In Los Angeles, there is not a long history of lacrosse participation like there is on Long Island, New Jersey or Maryland. The girls don’t have the history with the game. Maybe their parents are familiar with it. Maybe they played. Offering community-based organizations like the PELA allows kids who maybe are just hearing about lacrosse to go, ‘Oh, I’d like to try this.’ They’re trying it at a level that is introductory. If a team shows up and they don’t have enough players, we don’t care. You follow some of these players, and you go out and play. We make it instructive and we make it fun. You build a community where each program works with one another and helps one another. The growth of lacrosse in L.A. — for boys and for girls, but particularly girls, because that’s where we’re seeing substantial growth — rely on community-based organizations. If it was club-based, girls or boys who don’t have experience would be intimidated by the lack of experience, and they wouldn’t participate.”
— Stephen Fossati, Pacific Edge Lacrosse Association
“You want this game to be played by everybody. Not everybody can afford this game. I have kids that cannot afford it, and we find a way. You’re not going to have that when you have to pay thousands of dollars. I’ll never turn away a kid that wants to play a game. Community-based, rec, whatever you want to call us, we’re here to be a launching pad for these kids. Just like baseball and other rec sports, we’re here to help them get better. We might be the only program, with the exception of football, that lets you play other towns without trying out. They’re representing their town. That’s a big thing for a kid.”
— Jim Donovan, North Jersey Youth Lacrosse League
“When you’re looking for financial opportunities, it’s easier to get kids involved in the beginning through community-based lacrosse. It’s less of an expense on a parent. There’s less time commitment when looking at community-based vs. club, and they have the opportunity to play other sports. That’s an important part, especially in third through eighth grade. They can play other sports. And it’s important to belong to a community. There are two or three towns playing for the same schools in some areas, and this allows them to play on a team together before high school athletics.”
— Tamara Floruss, Jersey Girls Lacrosse Association
“We are lucky to have the ability to have all our teams in each division practice at the same time, in same place, each session. That freedom allows parents to provide a quality lacrosse experience for their child without mortgaging important family time. Removing that barrier to entry for a number of families has been very impactful in attracting new players. Combine that with our focus on developing thinking players, our emphasis on sound fundamentals, and providing quality coaching in a fun environment, and we’ve been able to make lacrosse more accessible to more families.”
— Andrew Stanley, Geronimo (Va.) Lacrosse
“It’s all inclusive. It’s really the only way you can broadly introduce more people to the sport.”
— John Gilman, Piedmont (N.C.) Community Lacrosse Association
“Local community programs are the foundation for lacrosse throughout the United States. Local rec clubs feed upwards to travel programs, to high schools with sanctioned programs, and then to colleges across the country. Everything starts locally.”
— Ed Reich, Western Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association
“If you do not have a rec-league feeder program at the high school level, your high school program is going to struggle, both on the girls’ and boys’ side. The high school programs with these feeder systems fare much better.”
— Bobbi Villhauer, Metro Atlanta Youth Lacrosse Association
“Because it’s Rhode Island and so small, not too many kids play compared to other sports, so there’s a sense of community. You see another lacrosse player, and it’s a high-five as opposed to just being another soccer player or baseball player. There’s a sense of belonging playing in a state this small.”
— Pete Kelleher, Rhode Island Youth Lacrosse League
How can rec and club/travel lacrosse coexist and collaborate?
“By coming to the realization that they both need each other. The tentacles of community-based lacrosse feed the select clubs, eventually. The select programs provide a great outlet for those wanting more lacrosse and to be challenged at a higher level. Understanding the needs and challenges of each is key.”
— Todd Molyneux, Greater Houston Youth Lacrosse Association
“Respecting the other’s mission and approach should be first and foremost. As a rec league, our focus for players, coaches and parents is different than that of travel teams in our area. We each provide a different service and focus on educating the masses about the game versus a select group. We have to recognize the importance of each other.”
— Emily Anderson, Milwaukee Area Youth Lacrosse Association
“Some of the coaches participate in both levels. Logan Bobzine is responsible for methodology at 3d [Lacrosse]. He’s also the head varsity coach at Arapahoe and he coaches a youth team for Littleton. Guys like him understand the seasonality and where they’re needed. The same thing with the top tier. LXTC, which is Tierney’s organization, and the 3d organization, they’ve actually been sponsors, giving money to CYLA. Our relationship just works. Everybody knows their boundaries. Everyone’s very respectful of the other. Everybody’s doing a good job. We really haven’t had to address any conflict.”
— Mike Stears, Colorado Youth Lacrosse Association
“Club programs are more of the travel teams. It’s not a fit for everybody, whether it be time or financial commitments. There’s a lot of things to factor in with club lacrosse. If you don’t have the time or whatever the case is to play club lacrosse, community or rec lacrosse should be right there as an alternative. Community lacrosse programs can also be a feeder to higher-level club lacrosse. If a kid gets into rec-level lacrosse and starts to grow a passion for the game, there’s that opportunity for him to take that next step.”
— Mike Black, River City (Ill.) Lacrosse
“I don’t know. It’s going to be that way. We are not reinventing the wheel. The demand of it is unbelievable. I had this conversation with another guy whose kid went to a rec practice. He went to practice and said, ‘These kids are horrible.’ That’s why we do it. We’re teaching them how to catch and throw, to know all the different checks. That’s what it’s there for. I’m not here to create All-Americans.”
— Jim Donovan, North Jersey Youth Lacrosse League
“One of the pieces is looking at the seasons. The way we’ve been able to do it so far is recreational lacrosse has the spring for the most part in our area. Recreational lacrosse has 3,000 games. Our assignor believes in recreational lacrosse. He assigns for all recreational lacrosse before he assigns for club. Having that hierarchy helps sustain the recreational.”
— Tamara Floruss, Jersey Girls Lacrosse Association
“Every program (rec or travel) aspires to teach players the game the right way for the right reason. The benefit of a community-based program like ours is we have no scoreboard based outcome expectations. Don’t get me wrong — we play to win of course, but when most of our activity is us playing against our own teams, we can put the emphasis on age-appropriate teaching over the scoreboard. Players can try new positions and skills, and coaches can coach their teams fully present in the moment without any of the pressures or expectations of the high intensity of a tournament. I believe that the increased focus and competition of the club circuit is a great thing for many kids, but what I love about our program is the chance it gives players to explore different aspects of their game and to play different roles on a team in an age-appropriate environment that’s set up to allow that to happen.”
— Andrew Stanley, Geronimo (Va.) Lacrosse
“We may be a model for that with Fusion. We’ve been working on it since last summer. I was approached by Fusion. They have been dabbling in lacrosse for about a year and a half. They recognize there was fragmentation between club and rec lacrosse because they saw it in soccer. We recognized travel lacrosse as our top threat because of the conflict in the spring. We’re working together now.”
— John Gilman, Piedmont (N.C.) Community Lacrosse Association
“Our recreation programs continue to feed and grow the club lacrosse teams. With a mutual respect of when each season starts and stops, all programs will grow together.”
— Ed Reich, Western Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association
“We don’t discourage players from being in two different leagues. I don’t know how they can do it better. My kids have done both. I feel like they do a good job of progressing when the skill level dictates it.”
— Bobbi Villhauer, Metro Atlanta Youth Lacrosse Association
“What we’ve gone out of way to do since these club teams started to arrive is have arrangements where they don’t play in our spring season. They’ll do fall, winter and summer tournaments — we love that and embrace it. But only one of these clubs plays during our season, so that creates a good relationship where they know we’ll push the kids to the clubs some as well. We have a good relationship and open communication, and many of our youth coaches are coaching those club teams as well. It sort of polices it and follows the gentleman’s agreement.”
— Pete Kelleher, Rhode Island Youth Lacrosse League
How has US Lacrosse helped your program in its sustainability?
“First, by employing great people with a passion for kids and lacrosse, and are willing to help local programs like ours. Second, whether it be clinics, seminars, certifications, grants or course work, US Lacrosse continues to be forward-thinking and has an insane amount of online resources — all of which have provided benefit to our city. The curricula and lesson plans have been invaluable to some clubs with limited or novice-level coaches being able to plug in and go. The coaching clinics were a game-changer that not only provided veteran coaches with new knowledge, but also ignited many others to want to become better coaches and get more involved.”
— Todd Molyneux, Greater Houston Youth Lacrosse Association
“Over the years, US Lacrosse has provided MAYLA with the tools to become a great league. MAYLA has received grants for the Coach Development Program, which in turn educates our coaches to be positive influences for players while teaching the game. Whether or not coaches remain or we lose them through attrition, we’ve helped support a truly special group of individuals that impact kids for the rest of their lives.”
— Emily Anderson, Milwaukee Area Youth Lacrosse Association
“CYLA is a US Lacrosse-member organization, and what that means is that 100 percent of our players, 100 percent of our head coaches and 100 percent of our officials are US Lacrosse members. We use the development training that US Lacrosse provides. For example, [we have] a junior lacrosse officials training academy. We basically got US Lacrosse trainers. We use their material. It allows us to utilize material instead of having to develop it. We do the same thing with coach development, where we use US Lacrosse’s [material], in particular Level 1 training. We pretty much go by the rules. Being the governing body, it creates consistency. If we develop a kid to a set of specifications and then they go play for Denver Elite in the summer, it’s the same criteria that they’re used to as far as rules. When they go play in national tournaments, it’s the same. The other thing is that player safety has come a long way. US Lacrosse has had a good focus on player safety. If you look at some of the rules changes for 2019, it addresses targeting and contact. There’s just a ton of money being spent by US Lacrosse on initiatives such as player safety that we did leverage, instead of trying to learn on our own.”
— Mike Stears, Colorado Youth Lacrosse Association
“US Lacrosse is really working to expand the safety of the sport with background checks and making sure the right people are on the field for the kids. It’s also increasingly important to have first-aid training. You have one place to go for that stuff, versus towns doing it on their own. It’s better the more it gets centralized.”
— Amanda Gerich, Connecticut-New York Youth Lacrosse Association
“The coaches and officials education programs have been very helpful. We still struggle, but they help us get new parents involved. It’s nice to say, ‘Here are some resources to help get you started.’ The LADM curriculum and the Mobile Coach are some of the top-rated resources we send out.”
— Laura Jennings, Northern California Junior Lacrosse Association
“We were immediately all in on the Lacrosse Athlete Development Model. We did some research and talked to a few people on it. TJ [Buchanan] has been really supportive and great. That LADM program has been really instrumental for us, and one that has a plethora of resources available so we can make sure that all of our coaches are using the same vocabulary and drills. They’re all progressing the kids at a relatively safe pace. There’s a model for us to use. It keeps the kids engaged and having fun. US Lacrosse has given us a good foundation that we can set for the entire program.”
— Mike Black, River City (Ill.) Lacrosse
“The resources that US Lacrosse gives to us, besides the grants for the specific programs, is valuable to helping coaches and parents feel comfortable that everything is taken care of. There are vast resources behind what we as a league are doing, that they can then turn to. Whether it’s for drills or LaxCon. It helps to build on the idea of community. What US Lacrosse does supplements what we do at PELA as a community. We’re all part of this beautiful community of lacrosse players, that’s not just in Los Angeles, but around the country. US Lacrosse has been invaluable.”
— Stephen Fossati, Pacific Edge Lacrosse Association
“In the beginning, there was a little apprehension. The coaching tools we get are fantastic. Unfortunately, with the growth of lacrosse comes the headaches. There are issues with parental conduct, coaching conduct. US Lacrosse has been very helpful with that. Andi [O’Connor] has been very good about pointing me in the right direction for where to help.”
— Jim Donovan, North Jersey Youth Lacrosse League
“In the beginning, US Lacrosse is the way we were able to get the programs up and running with their backing and knowledge. We believe in educating our coaches. US Lacrosse has been crucial to getting our Level 1 coaches taught. Us as a board, they’ve been an integral element to go back to for question, advice or direction. This year they gave us a grant for the rulebook for the officials, and we have a grant for the coaches to take Level 1 classes.”
— Tamara Floruss, Jersey Girls Lacrosse Association
“US Lacrosse has done a great job helping programs like ours make the game more accessible to more people. The Coach Development Program has demystified the sport and allowed thousands of adults the opportunity to positively impact tens of thousands of players across the country. Now the CDP program may not be the reason for the growth of lacrosse, but I do believe it will be a major reason we see the overall quality of play explode across the country in the coming years.”
— Andrew Stanley, Geronimo (Va.) Lacrosse
“Over the past few years, our relationship with US Lacrosse and support from US Lacrosse has been minimal. It’s been minimal because we hadn’t counted on them for a lot. The last year and a half, we’ve had a lot. We’ve taken the Lacrosse Athlete Development Model and shifted our younger groups over to smaller-sided teams. We have worked with Andi [O’Connor]. Andi was just making us aware of training opportunities and the fact she had a Train the Trainer pilot program in Alabama. Bruce Griffin was helping us with acquiring AED devices. We actually have one of our directors trying to become a regional trainer for the PCLA, Rich Macanochie from Davie County. He is trying to navigate that process through Andi and Lou [Corsetti] right now. We have a guy on our staff who we hope to be able to train our coaches to be Level 1 and 2 coaches. We’ve had sessions, but we want to make it more consistent for our coaches to be able to get to. We need easy accessible training. We’ve done more over the last 18 months. We’ve reached out and have gotten support.”
— John Gilman, Piedmont (N.C.) Community Lacrosse Association
“US Lacrosse has created an environment that will help the youngest of players and help provide parents and coaches with content to assist or create a program of any scale.”
— Ed Reich, Western Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association
“We don’t require every player or coach to be a member of US Lacrosse. The teams themselves make that decision. We work with US Lacrosse in any rule changes and obviously use them for the training of our coaches. We encourage that as much as we can.”
— Bobbi Villhauer, Metro Atlanta Youth Lacrosse Association
“That education piece is huge with Level 1 and Level 2 certification. We have so many coaches learning the game and getting involved. In the early days, it was great to have a sounding board for administrative stuff. If you’re starting from scratch, to have that reference point administratively was a huge component. It’s still there now and we can bounce questions their way. A handful of us went to the convention and we came back with a lot of takeaways. It’s almost as if there’s a central location. Go here. That’s huge.”
— Pete Kelleher, Rhode Island Youth Lacrosse League
What challenges do you find in the current youth lacrosse landscape?
“There are several. One, economic barriers. We have to find ways to lower the initial costs to get kids trying the game and keeping them, without families having to absorb hundreds or thousands of dollars to play. I believe the small-sided game and Lacrosse Athlete Development Model are key. Two, naturally, other sports become an obstacle to growing numbers. Three, building the coaching base is a major challenge being in south Texas. There are some incredible coaches, but many more are needed to grow the game and sustain the growth. And four, I’m hoping ‘Fortnite’ runs its course soon and no other blockbuster video game takes its place anytime soon!”
— Todd Molyneux, Greater Houston Youth Lacrosse Association
“Player recruiting and retention is a challenge. Many factors feed into this for our league, as we are still very much growing the game in this state. As a league, we keep an open-door policy with our programs to help guide and assist as best as we can.”
— Emily Anderson, Milwaukee Area Youth Lacrosse Association
“I don’t any, because of the seasonality. Rec is here to stay. Rec has experienced phenomenal growth over the last several years. It has, though, leveled off in the last couple years. We’re not at a point where we’re concerned about downturn, but we’re at a point now where we’ve got close to 400 youth teams in Colorado. If you take that times 20, you’ve got 8,000 kids playing. To grow that number, there has to be some conscious recruiting activities. Right now, we’ve just relied on the natural growth of the sport. We kind of peaked.”
— Mike Stears, Colorado Youth Lacrosse Association
“Management. We’re a very big league. We do break it off into three different divisions. We also tiered our league based on the history of performance of the kids — AAA, AA and A. Like everything else, volunteers are a huge challenge at the league level, especially because the old lacrosse guard is gone now and the parents are in just for the duration of their kid. We’ve been fortunate to have good retention.”
— Jim Donovan, North Jersey Youth Lacrosse League
“Right now, some of the sportsmanship issues that are occurring across all athletics. We’ve kept out a lot of the sportsmanship issues up until this point. There are people saying things on the sidelines now that were never said. We’re trying to get the rules out to the parents, especially in the recreation area. The last two years, we’ve had a sideline manager. They come out for the coaches meeting, so they’ve become a part of the game. They have a little rules card that they can give to the parents. And being able to maintain our officials. At any given time, we have about 270 youth officials, and about 120 are high school kids. There’s usually a 30-person turnover every year.”
— Tamara Floruss, Jersey Girls Lacrosse Association
“The threats to lacrosse are not any different than the threats we see in all areas of society. People are terrified they are missing something, and they gravitate to bigger, faster, sooner under the assumption that it’s better. We have great club programs with great coaches in our area. At the same time, we have worked very hard to make sure we have great coaches in our league. We are proud to have quite a few current JV and varsity high school coaches coaching every session in Geronimo. The concern I have is that parents feel pressure to do more for the sake of doing more, when the reality is that doing what’s right for kids — specifically, your kid, today — is the most important factor in their long-term success on and off the field.”
— Andrew Stanley, Geronimo (Va.) Lacrosse
“Other competing sports is always the No. 1 threat. The club/non-recreational organizations have been the second-largest threat, which is why we’re stepping into this agreement with Fusion Lacrosse. It’s all about sharing the kids around the calendar. If we don’t create the new players, they don’t have anyone to go play with. If they don’t allow us to be unobstructed during the spring season, we can’t create these viable lacrosse players. It had been a slow draw of our experienced players that has hindered the growth of the sport. A lot of your recruiting is done by buddies that already play. If they’re not going to a rec environment, you can’t recruit a buddy who’s never played lacrosse to a club, so then they don’t play. That has been the No. 1 threat to youth recreational lacrosse in our areas the last 5-6 years.”
— John Gilman, Piedmont (N.C.) Community Lacrosse Association
“While building younger programs and allowing the sport to grow, the talent pool is diverse. As local rec programs grow at different rates, finding balance when playing local schools challenges both young coaches and veterans alike.”
— Ed Reich, Western Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association
“Our geographical area is huge, and that is becoming an obstacle. There are so many teams now, rec league teams do not want to travel more than 30 minutes for a game. We want to give everyone quality competition without the travel.”
— Bobbi Villhauer, Metro Atlanta Youth Lacrosse Association
“Field space is one. We compete with so many other sports. The other one is officiating. We have exploded faster than they can keep up. They’re great officials and good at what they do, but the groups couldn’t physically train them fast enough. So we often end up scheduling two games back to back, just to have coverage. It’s wonderful to have the growth, but the support around it, you have to keep pace. If you don’t, you can have a situation where you’re turning players away or not getting home games because everyone has to go where the refs are available.”
— Pete Kelleher, Rhode Island Youth Lacrosse League